


Empyrian

by timehwimeh



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Blood, M/M, Major Character Injury, not your typical pokemon au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-31
Updated: 2016-08-31
Packaged: 2018-08-12 06:44:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7924639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timehwimeh/pseuds/timehwimeh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A year ago, Gym Leaders across the region suddenly went missing along with the Voltron Paladins of old. Now the new Paladins find themselves facing a greater threat than any of them were prepared for.</p>
<p>Lance was only curious as to why his friend was sneaking into the woods so late at night. He didn't expect to find himself caught up in an adventure that may determine the fate of the world as he knows it. Not to mention he's stuck working with his dumb rival who doesn't even remember him.</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>More than just your normal Pokémon AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	Empyrian

**Author's Note:**

> IMPORTANT BEFORE YOU BEGIN
> 
> Take a look at the concept stuff I drew over on my blog. Trust me, it will help you understand the characters and their pokémon way better.
> 
> http://timehwimeh.tumblr.com/tagged/pokemon-au

“Uh, Lance, I don’t think this is such a good idea…” Hunk grabbed onto Lance’s shoulder before the thinner boy could run ahead of him.

“Oh relax, Hunk,” Lance whispered to the boy behind him, grabbing his hand and taking it off his shoulder, “Pidge has no idea we’re following her. It’s kind of like a secret mission.” Lance looked around the forested area that he and Hunk had found themselves in after following their friend Pidge. Lance had taken Hunk to the lab where their small friend worked, hoping to get Pidge to come and hang out with them, and had seen the brunette sneaking out of the building and off into the woods. Thinking this was an even better adventure, Lance coerced Hunk into following Pidge with him. 

“I just don’t think Pidge would appreciate us following her without knowing,” Hunk whispered as he followed Lance to the next tree to hide behind. Peaking out from behind the tree, the two boys saw Pidge plugging their computer into what seemed to be a door hidden behind the foliage. After quickly typing something into the device, the door swished open and the small scientist trotted inside, rolling up the plug as she moved. Once Pidge was out of sight, Lance ran up to the hidden door, Hunk warily following behind.

“Woah…” Lance looked up at the metal door, starstruck, “This is so cool. Where is this place?”

“I don’t know, Lance,” Hunk said, nervously holding his hands together to his chest, “but I really don’t like the look of it. I don’t think we should be-” Before Hunk even finished, Lance was walking inside the door, smile spread across his face.

“Lance!” Hunk’s voice cracked as he called after his friend, who was now completely unseeable inside the darkness behind the door. 

“Oh come on, you scaredy cat!” Lance’s voice called from inside the door, “Do you want me to leave you alone out there?” Looking around, Hunk gulped as the forest seemed to loom around him.

“Wait for me!” Hunk hurried inside after Lance, preferring to be in the scary dark room with his friend than alone in the dark woods. 

Inside the door was a large room made completely of metal. Lance was a few steps ahead, his hand grazing the metal walls as he slowly walked the perimeter. 

“What is this place?” Lance whispered, pulling away a vine that was growing on the wall. 

“Lance, I really really think we should go back,” Hunk nervously inched towards his friend, constantly moving his head to look around the dark room, “Wherever we are, I don’t think Pidge would want us to find her here.”

“That’s for sure,” the two boys jumped as a third voice spoke out to them from the other side of the room. Blinking to adjust his eyes to the darkness a bit more, Lance could make out the outline of Pidge’s fluffy hair staring Hunk and him down.

“Pidgey, my friend! My pal!” Lance threw his hands up and a smile spread across his face as he made his way over to the small scientist still glaring at him from across the room. When he got close enough, Lance swung his arm over Pidge’s shoulders, pulling her closer to him, “Buddy of mine, what a strange coincidence finding you all the way out here in this creepy metal bunker in the middle of the night!”

“Knock it off, Lance,” Pidge pushed Lance off and away from her, patting off their shoulder where Lance had been touching her, “I knew you two were following since I left the laboratory, you really aren’t as quiet as you think.”

“Good going, Hunk!” Lance turned to his friend slowly making his way towards the others in the dark, “You just had to be all noisy and talky the whole walk here.”

“Me?” Hunk finally caught up to the others, letting out a sigh of relief of being able to fully make out his friends in the dark, “You were the one who wanted to follow Pidge in the first place! And you were definitely the loudest talker on the way over.”

“No way!” Lance retorted, “I bet it was your heavy footsteps!”

“Will you two shut up?!” Pidge interrupted the two boys dumb squabbling, “It doesn’t matter whose fault it is, the point is that you are now both here and you're stuck coming with me whether you like it or not. You’ve seen too much already.”

“Woah Pidge, sounds like some secret agent shit to me,” Lance smirked, “You gonna have to kill us now or something?”

“No,” Pidge pulled her backpack off her back, reaching inside for something, “but I wouldn’t mind some help on this mission, and you two are already here so… welcome to my rescue mission.” Pidge pulled a pokéball out of the bag, clicking the center button to release what was inside. A Magnemite appeared floating near Pidge’s head. 

“Some light please, Rover,” Pidge told the Magnemite. In a second, the dark room was fully illuminated by the sparks emanating from the magnets on Rover’s sides.

“Oh thank god,” Hunk let out a breath he had been holding since he entered the metal room, “it was way too dark in here.” 

“Wait, so what is this rescue mission? And what is this place exactly,” Lance crossed his arm, raising an eyebrow at Pidge. With a sigh, Pidge began walking further into the metal room down a corridor, Rover floating next to her head. Lance and Hunk quickly followed behind her.

“So, you guys know how my brother went missing about a year ago, right?” Pidge said, typing away at something on her PokéNav and looking up sometimes to check what was around her.

“Yeah, of course,” Hunk said, trying to look over Pidge’s shoulder as they walked to try and see what she was doing.

“Wait, are we going to rescue your brother?” Lance asked, “Wasn’t he declared dead or something?”

“Yes, he was,” Pidge sighed, swiping to a new screen on their device, “but he isn’t actually dead. I know.”

“Pidge…” Hunk placed a hand on Pidge’s shoulder, “I know you want to believe that, we all do, but isn’t it a little crazy to think he’s still alive?”

“I know it’s crazy,” Pidge replied, “but it’s true. I hacked into the police files soon after he was announced dead and learned that he wasn’t killed in some freak gym accident, but actually went missing.”

“You hacked the police!?” Lance said in excitement, “That’s so awesome, man!” Pidge huffed, smirk appearing on her face, “Yes, Lance, I know it is. But that’s not the point. The point is that I also learned about this organization called the Galra that, apparently, the police have been hiding any existence of. I’m almost positive that they are the ones who took my brother. Recently, I found a strange electricity wave coming from the area of this building we’re in and I was able to hack into some communication coming from it. The Galra have been holding someone prisoner here. I don’t know who, but seeing how close it is to where my brother was captured…”

“You think your brother is here,” Hunk finished. Pidge nodded, quickly typing at something that appeared on their screen. Suddenly, Pidge abruptly stopped, holding her arm out to indicate to the boys to stop too. Her face was still glued to her PokéNav’s screen. 

“What is it?” Lance asked, glancing over at the PokéNav. Whatever the device was showing, Lance couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Pidge must have done some weird sciency modification to it so it would do way more that it was originally programmed to do. 

“Shhh,” Pidge put a finger to her mouth, shushing Lance and whispering, “be quiet. I’m picking up readings of people and pokémon around the corner.” Pidge nodded at Rover and the Magnemite suddenly stopped producing light. In the darkness, a small purple light was still emanating from around the corner to their left. The trio slowly poked their heads around the corner, Pidge on the bottom, Lance in the middle and Hunk on top. A door sat in the middle of the wall on the other end of the hallway. The purple light was coming from underneath the door frame. 

“Woah…” Lance whispered, “What is behind that.” 

“I’m not 100% sure,” Pidge answered, looking back at her PokéNav once again, “but I’m picking up 4 humans and 2 pokémon behind it.” Pidge brought the device closer to her face, scrunching her nose at something she was reading from it. 

“What is it?” Hunk asked, seeing the look on his friends face.

“There’s someone else,” Pidge said. She pointed down the hallway to the right of the door, “I’m picking up readings of another person and pokémon coming towards us from down there.”

“What? Where! Let me see!” Lance snatched the PokéNav from Pidge’s hands with a distinct “hey!” from the girl. On the screen, Lance could make out a bunch of random numbers and letters that were appearing in succession. Below the numbers were pixelated blobs that changed colors from blue to yellow to red and seemed to be moving as if they were walking. 

“Pidge what does this say?” Lance asked, tilting his head in confusion. Pidge grabbed the device from the boy’s hand, “It SAYS don’t take my PokéNav from me, you dimwit.” Lance groaned at the insult. 

“Hey, I think I see someone,” Hunk, who had been ignoring his friends tussle, said as he continued to look down the hallway. Both Pidge and Lance followed his gaze, seeing the black form of something humanoid and something beast-like move towards the door. 

“Oh hell no,” Lance suddenly tensed up at the sight of the form opening the door and slipping inside. 

“What? What is it?” Hunk asked, confused. Lance pushed away from the wall and started to storm down the hallway towards the door.

“It’s Keith!” Lance called back to answer Hunk.

“What? Keith? How do you know?” Hunk started to follow behind his friend down the hallway, Pidge close behind.

“I’d know that ponytail anywhere!” Lance responded.

“Keith? Whose Keith?” Pidge asked, completely lost in this conversation.

“An asshole, that’s who he is!” Lance answered, finally making it to the door, “I am not letting him get to your brother before we do!” Lance opened his bag, pulling out a pokéball of his own. Grabbing the doorknob, he swung his bag back onto his back as he opened the door and heading into the purple light.

 

The double doors inside the glowing room opened up before Keith as he got into a fighting stance, his Sneasel next to him copying his pose.

“Who's there?” one of the masked people called towards the sound of the automatic doors opening. 

“Now, Yaongee,” Keith said, nodding towards his Sneasel. With a snarl, Yaongee lept into action claws turning into steel with the activation of Metal Claw. 

“What!?” One of the humans fell backwards over some of the wires on the floor as Yaongee leapt at them. The Sandslash that had been next to the human quickly blocked the Metal Claw attack. Preoccupied with watching the fight happen next to him, one of the other humans didn’t even notice as Keith came up and punched him in the face, knocking him out. The third human shakily called for the other pokemon in the room, a Croagunk, to attack the intruder. Jumping away from the oncoming Poison Jab, Keith pulled a pokeball off of his belt and pressed the button, calling forth a Poochyena that, as soon as it appeared, bit onto the arm of the Croagunk. With the pokémon all occupied, Keith was able to quickly take down the humans without interference. 

“Yaongee,” Keith called as he wiped sweat off of his face. The Sneasel looked up from where she was standing with one foot on the Sandslash, having knocked it out. Keith gestured towards the figure that was strapped down to what looked like an operating table in the center of the room. Quickly understanding, Yaongee moved to cut the restraints off of the person. The Poochyena trotted up next to Keith, having finished taking down the Croagunk. 

“Good job, Pochyana,” Keith said, kneeling down to pat the Poochyena on his head. 

“Snea!” Yaongee called from the center table, having finished undoing the restraints. Keith returned to his feet, snorting at Yaongee’s noise of displeasure. 

“You did good too, Yaongee,” Keith said, walking up to the table. Satisfied, Yaongee hopped back onto the ground next to her trainer. Keith finally got a good look at the person who had been stuck on the table.

“Shiro?” Keith spoke quietly, as if he spoke any louder the words would no longer be true. Lying on the table, unconscious, was definitely Keith’s mentor and personal hero, Takashi Shirogane. However, he seemed to be sporting a new look of a tuft of white hair, mechanical right arm and a scar running across his nose. Shaking off the disbelief, Keith moved to help the unconscious man to his feet so he could get him out of this god forsaken place, returning his pokémon to their pokéballs as well.

“Woah woah woah, not so fast there,” Keith spun his head around towards the sliding door he had entered the room from at the sound of another voice. Walking angrily towards him was a tall, tan skinned boy wearing a backwards hat and sweatshirt and holding a pokéball in his right hand “I’m going to be the one to save Matt.” 

“Matt?” Keith looked at this new person in confusion. The other boy suddenly stopped, looking at the figure that was Shiro who Keith was trying really hard to hold up on his own.

“Shiro?!” the other boy’s voice cracked as he realized who it was Keith was trying to rescue. He quickly rushed to Shiro’s other side and helped Keith keep him upright.

“Who are you?” Keith asked, still very confused. It was obvious that this person was of no threat to him or Shiro.

“Uh, duh! It’s me! Lance! Your rival!” the boy, Lance, looked across Shiro at Keith with one eyebrow raised. 

“Lance?” Keith paused in order to think where this name and face seemed so familiar from, “Oh! Lance! From the gym, right?”

“That’s right!” Lance said, attempting to puff out his chest while still keeping a hold on Shiro.

“Weren’t you the janitor?” Keith asked, remembering specifically seeing Lance mopping the gym floors more than one time.

“No! I’m an apprentice just like you were!” Lance’s face heated up in anger at being called a janitor. Keith shrugged, shifting Shiro into a better position over his shoulders. 

“Hey guys?” both Keith and Lance looked away from each other and back towards the door at the sound of another voice. A heavy set boy with dark skin stood in the doorway, constantly looking back over his shoulder, “it’s great that you’re catching up and everything, but we really need to get out of here. Pidge says there’s, like, a whole lot of people coming our way.”

“Shit,” Keith breathed out, beginning to walk Shiro towards the door. Lance quickly caught on and helped bring the larger man towards the exit. 

“How many people is ‘a whole lot’, Hunk?” Lance asked the bigger guy, Hunk, when they finally got Shiro past the first door.

“I can’t be truly sure,” further down past the door stood a short brunette with glasses, who Keith guessed was Pidge, looking intensely at a PokéNav in her hands, a Magnemite floating close to their head, “but if I were to guess, about 15 people.” 

“And where there’s people there’s pokemon,” Hunk said, holding open the second door so Keith and Lance could get Shiro outside and into the dark hallway. 

“They’re coming from that way,” Pidge said, pointing down the hallway straight ahead of them, “which means we need to get out of here however Keith got in.”

“What?” Lance said, “I am NOT following Keith anywhere!”

“Well, if you want to fight a horde of Galra trainers you can go right ahead. Hunk can carry Shiro for you,” Pidge shrugged, not even sparing a glance at Lance. 

“Fiiiineeee,” Lance groaned, “lead the way, ponytail-boy.” Keith side eyed Lance at the name he called him. Without a word, Keith began to lead his new companions back the way he came.

“Stop right there!” a voice shouted from down the hallway.

“Fuck. Run,” Keith told the others. Without hesitation, the four of them began to hightail it down the dark hallway, Keith and Lance dragging a bit behind because of the extra weight of holding Shiro. 

“This isn’t working!” Lance called out towards Keith, “We aren’t getting anywhere while holding Shiro!” Keith gritted his teeth together, silently agreeing with Lance. Without dropping Shiro, Keith reached for another pokéball at his waist. Without removing it, he pressed the button and a Blaziken appeared running alongside them.

“Beonchiko, you think you can carry Shiro for us?” Keith asked, looking up at his Blaziken. With a nod, the Blaziken moved to take Shiro from Keith’s hands. Stunned, Lance easily relinquished his hold as well. 

“Now,” Keith looked over at Lance, “we run.” 

 

Racing down the hallway, with Keith in the front giving directions as Rover provided light, the four of them make their way towards whatever entrance Keith had used to get in.

“Guys, I think they’re catching up!” Hunk, who was the farthest behind, called to the others after taking a glance behind him. 

“Aura Sphere!” someone from behind them called out. Yelping in surprise, Hunk fumbled for one of the pokéballs on his belt. While almost dropping it, Hunk opened the pokéball and caught the pokémon that appeared in his arms with a grunt.

“Cannoli, use Protect!” Hunk told the Shelgon which he was struggling to keep in his arms. Suddenly a large blue screen appeared in front of Hunk and his Shelgon, stopping the Aura Sphere only inches away from Hunk’s face. Releasing a breath, Hunk quickly turned and ran to catch up to the others, still holding Cannoli in his arms.

“Nice work, buddy!” Lance slapped Hunk on the back when he finally caught up, “You too, Cannoli.” The Shelgon blinked up at Lance, looking a bit as if it were smiling. 

“It’s just around this corner,” Keith told the others, skidding to move around the upcoming corner, “it opens up into a larger room.” 

“Aura Sphere!” came the same voice from behind them once again. They all quickly turned the corner behind Keith, the blue sphere slamming into the wall behind where they had only just been. 

“There it is!” Keith yelled, pointing ahead at the opening to the dark forest ahead of them. 

“Extreme Speed!” without warning, a blast of wind pushed the four kids and 3 pokemon back from the doorway. Standing in the natural night light streaming in from outside was a Lucario, fists clenched and bending into a fighting position. 

“Nice try, kids,” a voice from the hallway behind them said, “but you aren’t getting any farther than this.” Turning to face the voice, the light that Rover was emitting didn’t seem to reach back into the hallway enough to fully illuminate the figure. There was only the silhouette of a man with what seemed to be a glowing red light where his left eye should be. 

“Oh like hell we’re stopping here,” Lance snarled, finally opening the pokéball that he had been holding in his hand since finding Shiro. From the light appeared a Baile Form Oricorio, already posed in what seemed to be a dancing stance. 

“Shakira! Flame Charge on that dumb Lucario!” Lance pointed back towards the Lucario in the doorway, not turning his head away from the man still shadowed in front of him. Shakira quickly moved to attack the Lucario, moving in what seemed to be a dance. 

“Lucario, Me First,” the man calls. Smirking, the Lucario charges towards Shakira, knocking it away with it’s own amped up version of Flame Charge. 

“Shakira!” Lance called, finally turning around to face the pokémon fight. 

“Cannoli, Flamethrower,” Hunk commanded, finally letting the Shelgon go from his arms by throwing it up towards the fight. Sucking in, Cannoli let a stream of fire go from his mouth towards the Lucario. With what looked like practiced ease, the Lucario dodged the line of fire and shot an Aura Sphere back at the Shelgon. As Cannoli fell to the ground, a laugh broke out from the man in the hallway.

“Now, if you don’t want your other precious pokémon friends to get injured as well, I’d suggest you return the Champion to me,” he said after his laughter died down.

“Champion?” Keith said to himself, glancing over at Shiro who still lied, unmoving, in Beonchiko’s arms.  

“Why you,” Pidge gritted out, fists clenched in anger. Next to her, Rover began charging up electricity. 

“Pidge, wait!” Lance called, attempting to stop Pidge from going through with her attack. Unfortunately, Pidge was too angry to listen. Rover released a large electric blast, shocking not just the Lucario, but everyone in the room. Lance fell backwards, electricity coursing through his body. On the other side of the room, Shakira laid fainted from the unexpected electric attack. Beonchiko had let go of Shiro, who was now sprawled out a bit away from where the Blaziken had landed. Keith was slowly sitting up, clenching and unclenching his fists to get the blood flowing in his body again. Hunk had gotten Cannoli to use Protect just before the blast had hit. He was gripping onto his Shelgon with dear life. Pidge had fallen to her knees, grunting in anger at her stupidity. Unfortunately, it seemed as if the Lucario hadn’t been affected at all by the blast, and the man in the hallway had been out of range.

“Useless,” the man spit, gesturing for the Lucario to retrieve Shiro from the floor. The Lucario began moving towards Shiro, but abruptly came to a complete stop, not moving at all.

“Lucario! What are you doing?!” the man yelled, “I gave you an order!”

“Not today, asshole,” an unknown feminine voice echoed through the room. Turning towards the doorway, Lance was able to make out the outline of a woman, hair tied up on her head in a bun and hands resting on her hips.

“Vega, Psychic,” the woman said. The small ball form pokémon floating next to her began to glow blue and revealed itself as a Munna. A blue glow began to form around the Lucario as well, lifting him into the air. Struggling did no good as the Lucario was flung across the room and down the hallway at the man. 

“W-Who are you?” Lance spoke out, voice still shaky after the electric shock. 

“My name is Allura,” stepping further into the room, Lance was able to make out features of the woman. Her skin was dark and her hair was a glowing white under the moonlight, “I am an Altean Ranger, and you five are my new Paladins of Voltron.”

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, I can't believe I'm actually writing this. I haven't written anything serious since middle school. 
> 
> Anyway, there's a whole lot in store for this fic, I have the entire plot written out and it is going to be wild. All that's left to to actually write the chapters. And don't worry, it will only get gayer.


End file.
